The need for safe application of pesticides is well known by these skilled in the art aware of the specific dangers and requirements for meeting established government standards, as well as the educated public aware of health hazards associated with chemicals use to control pests in our environment. By way of example, government statutes are created to regulate the distribution, sale, and use of pesticides to protect people and the environment from adverse effects. Research and technology continually effects and enhances methods and procedures including the control of pest and vector mosquitoes. The use of global positioning satellites improved aerial application of pesticides with research on droplet spectrums and the ability to predict the ultimate fate of these droplets released has emphasized the need and importance of meteorology and real-time application optimization.
Ground weather and tracking of vehicles is well known as illustrated by way of example with the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 6,424,295 for a GPS weather data recording system for use with the applications of chemicals to agricultural fields. Here, a GPS weather data recording system is used to determine a series of positions of a ground vehicle and the velocity of the vehicle as it traverses an agricultural field. The series of positions and velocity trace the ground track across the field while a wind sensor is used to measure wind velocity with respect to the vehicle. As described, during crop dusting, the dispensing vehicle usually a tractor, makes numerous sequential, adjacent passes, dispensing chemicals in a swath across the field in each pass. The tractors driver carefully follows a ground track which ensures that each successive swath over the field is correctly spaced, distance wise, from the previous swath in order to avoid gaps or overlaps in coverage. Should one swath occur too close to a previous swath, the overlap area receives excessive amounts of chemicals that may prove very expensive to the farmer and can damage or render crops unusable. As indicated, wind conditions at the commencement of the dispensing operations can be very different from wind conditions half way through or near the end of dispensing operations and as a result it is important that such conditions be properly monitored for accurately tracking these conditions with respect to the ground vehicle position. It can be appreciated that such problems existing for the ground vehicle are very much magnified when attempting to dispense such chemicals from an aircraft. As illustrated by way further example and with reference to U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,987 for an agricultural aircraft control system using a global positioning system, chemicals are applied to an agricultural field in a variety of flight patterns. An aircraft computer stores surface coordinates of the field to be sprayed. Based on stored information, the computer produces a flight pattern having the desired orientation and generates signals representative of the amount and direction of deviation from a desired flight pattern. Such prescription styled farming control systems are used with various navigational controllers as illustrated with reference to U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,595 for a method and apparatus for prescription application of products to an agricultural field.
In spite of known uses of GPS vehicle location systems, chemical prescription application methods, and monitoring of local weather conditions, there remains a need to safely apply such chemicals in an efficient and cost effective manner. The present invention satisfies this need.